The Bible and Me

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I believe that amongst the ve layers of meanings, the literal and personal layers of

meaning are absolutist, the author and text layer is relativist, whilst understanding the full meaning of a text provides an evaluativist stance. I have arrived at this conclusion because of the methods of understanding amongst the layers. Specically, the literal and personal layers of meaning are very much one-sided they do not consider other ideas and concepts
from other sources; they simply attack the text lazily, and do not attempt to dig deeper into its underlying meaning. The only difference with the two is that meanings derived are generally opposites- the literals derivative is usually antiquated and traditional, whilst a personal interpretation is generally more contemporary, and tted into the mind of the interpreter.

! On the other hand, the layers of the author and text tend to be relativist in the sense that the meaning changes over time. New historical ndings come up now and then, suggesting a changes in authors intent and its historical accuracy. Text meanings too are relatively inaccurate as language is imperfect, as words cannot fully explain knowledge, especially when translated into a foreign tongue with different words, culture and context. If one solely relies on these then, the meaning obtained would be too imperfect, as these are too reliant on information which is not completely accurate and precise.

! It is only through careful understanding through delving into the full meaning of the text that it can be considered evaluativist. The reader must comprehend not only the historical context of the text, authors intent and its denotation, but also relate it to his everyday life and other texts. By doing so, the full meaning can be obtained and its meaning can withstand the human error present in it.

! For the past ve years, I have been reading the Bible in the sense that I carefully considered only the author and historical context. I have been treating the Bible as something like a novel for the longest time, only to get disappointed with the historical inaccuracies and discrepancies between texts, such as those from the four gospels. It has only been last summer that I got to understand that the meaning has to be lived and applied to the context of daily life. I admit I am not yet perfect in capabilities but I believe Im slowly improving through the help of the current lesson on Layers of Meaning and Context.

! I do not read the Bible often, but I do go to Sunday Service at our church weekly. The manner by which the pastor interprets and teaches us the reading is similar to what we learnt in CLE class, so by doing so, this helps strengthens the way Im to read the Bible. I believe though that through reading the Bible more often, I will denitely improve, and my experience with the Bible will be enriched.